BBC Official Doesn’t Like The Grunting On Court

Written by: Staff on 27th September 2012

BBC Official Doesn’t Like The Grunting On Court

epa03412006 Maria Sharapova of Russia returns a forehand shot during the quarterfinal against Samantha Stosur of Australia in the Pan Pacific Open tennis in Tokyo, Japan, 27 September 2012. EPA/KIMIMASA MAYAMA |

The list of those who decry the trend of ‘grunting’ in tennis gained another notable signature as Barbara Slater, the Director of Sport with the BBC in Britain .

Slater, the person in charge of the BBC’s Wimbledon coverage that is shown all over the world, welcomed plans, led by the WTA and the International Tennis Federation, to tackle the issue of grunting in tennis. She revealed the practice, employed by the top two players on the WTA world rankings, Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova, has drawn negative feedback from viewers.

“It is a shame, and some of our audience clearly don’t like that,”insisted Slater, a former Olympic gymnast for Britain who is the first woman to hold the coveted Director of Sport title at the BBC.

“You want to see women athletes achieving the very highest standards of play. That is something that the governing bodies have got to work with the players on, wanting to be respectful of those players’ desire to play the game to their very maximum.

“Equally, I think it’s very important both for the crowd and the TV audiences that it doesn’t become too distracting.”

In June the WTA vowed to form a “sport-wide plan” to stop future stars from grunting by educating them and introducing rule changes.

©Daily Tennis News Wire

Topics: Barbara Siater, BBC tennis, British tennis news, Maria Sharapova, tennis grunting, Victoria Azarenka